Healthy Savannah receives grant, targets childhood obesity

Thursday

Jul 31, 2014 at 10:12 PM

HANNAH LANDERS

The childhood obesity epidemic is hardly a secret. Even first lady Michelle Obama has focused on the problem with her "Let's Move!" campaign. Now nonprofit Healthy Savannah has received the resources and developed a plan to target this issue locally.

Healthy Savannah has received a $150,000 grant from the Healthcare Georgia Foundation as part of a three-year program to combat childhood obesity. The grant will be renewed each year in the three-year period, but the amounts may vary.

"I think everybody knows that there's childhood obesity," said Paula Kreissler, director of Healthy Living and Community Development, Healthy Savannah and YMCA of Coastal Georgia. "So really what we want to do is educate on the benefits of having healthier kids."

Healthy Savannah has established three goals it would like to complete over the grant period, Kreissler said. The first is to get a "Complete Streets" ordinance passed in both the city and the county governments. The second is to help with the completion of the Truman Linear Park Trail. The third goal is to increase awareness in communities about having healthy kids.

Morphia Scarlett, the assistant director of healthy living and community development at Healthy Savannah, said community members have to be an integral part of the process in carrying out these goals.

"The neighborhoods would be better to let us know how we can help them," she said. "We're going in with an open mind and asking them to tell us the issues they're having in their areas."

Healthy Savannah was founded in 2007 by former Mayor Otis Johnson. It is 100 percent volunteer based, and Kreissler sees it as more of a "social movement" than a program or project.

"Basically we build a coalition," she said, naming the Savannah Bicycle Campaign and Girls on the Run as examples of coalition members. "We then take the power of the coalition and try to effect a cultural shift in how we make choices."

The childhood obesity program will target 10 public schools chosen by members of the city council at a meeting in late June.

Last Friday, Healthy Savannah met with principals from those schools to give them more information about the three-year plan. Kreissler said the meeting went "very, very well" and she "couldn't be more excited about the level of involvement and engagement" shown by the school officials.

Despite the focus on schools, Kreissler said she wants whole communities involved in the program, from businesses to churches to entire neighborhoods.

"The idea is having the school as the focal point for that community," she said.

To Kreissler, success would be to see the program branch out organically.

"Because we're focused on 10 schools, I would like to think that 10 more schools on their own would just say, 'We see what's going on here. Let's do this in our school.' And basically become their own champions," she said.

Complete Streets

A Complete Street is a street with safe accommodations for every type of traveler, from walkers to bikers to those who take public transit or drive. A Complete Streets ordinance would not only keep people safe no matter what kind of transportation they choose, but it also would encourage people to be more active, Kreissler said.

John Bennett, the executive director of Savannah Bicycle Campaign, said the collaboration between citizens and government built into in the Complete Streets ordinance would eliminate "missed opportunities" in transportation planning.

"It's evident when you see a path in the weeds on the side of the road: People wish there was a sidewalk there," he said. "And it's not that transportation planners are against sidewalks or bike lanes. But I think it helps to have that discussion very early."

Bennett said the ordinance would provide all parties with enough information to make informed decisions about community needs.

"There are all sorts of things you can do," he said. "There are bike lanes, protected bike lanes, off-road bike paths, sidewalks, pedestrian refuge islands … And once we have the ordinance, it's a toolbox. It's a common way of talking about these things that makes sure it's all described.

"That's not to say there isn't room for innovation and that's the exciting part. … But we have to have that common way of talking about it before we get to that point."

Truman Linear Park Trail

Development of the Truman Linear Park Trail has been an ongoing story in the last few decades. The need for a trail was recognized in the 1970s, but the idea wasn't developed until the 1990s. Due to disagreements over design and upkeep, construction on the trail has been stalled repeatedly.

The trail would connect Lake Mayer Park to Daffin Park and Police Memorial Trail, which runs from Kerry Street to 52nd Street.

The county was in charge of the project for many years but shifted control to the city within the last year. Bennett said the project is currently delayed because local match funding has yet to be transferred from the county, but he feels positive about the switch.

"We're confident in the city," Bennett said. "The city understands that this is a project with amazing potential that is going to be cherished by the community."

Kreissler said 16 schools are within a mile and a half of the Truman Linear Park Trail and its completion could mean more students walking and biking to school.

Bennett said about 60 percent of the population would like to be able to bicycle more but are worried about their safety.

"We're dedicated to trying to make things safe and appealing and convenient for people to get around on bikes, whether they're doing so out of choice or by necessity," he said.

The trail would make it easier for cyclists and pedestrians to get safely to more places around Savannah. And this is just the start of the possibilities of such interconnectivity, Bennett said.

"We often talk about trails like this being a spine," he said. "Eventually, once it's being completed, we'll see ribs coming off the spine."

There are even benefits for those who aren't walkers or cyclists.

"(The Truman Linear Park Trail) is going to enhance property values, make neighborhoods more attractive," Bennett said. "It's a project that's a winner for all sorts of reasons."

Measuring outcomes

Throughout the grant period, Healthy Savannah will help organize community meetings to get an idea of neighborhood needs as well as what's working and what's not working.

Kreissler said the organization has a new "audience response system" that will be used at initial meetings to measure overall concerns of community members. This will help the organization know where to focus and make sure everyone is heard.

"Some (neighborhoods) will take off on their own and will only need a little bit of help," she said. "And some will want us there probably pretty regularly to facilitate. That's how I see it. … And either one of those is totally okay."

Healthy Savannah also will distribute surveys to gauge changes in community feelings and behavior over time, along with more concrete measurements such as the number of sidewalk miles added to a neighborhood. These survey results will be posted on the Healthy Savannah website.

Something for everyone

Recently, the Federal Highway Administration conducted a pilot program for non-motorized transportation in four different communities. The program included infrastructure changes and an educational component, much like the Healthy Savannah plan. Results showed that physical activity in children increased 20 to 200 percent and about 16 million miles were walked or biked that otherwise would have been traversed by driving.

This kind of increased activity not only keeps school attendance and academic performance up, but also provides better quality of life in the long term, Kreissler said.

"Active kids are happier, healthier, do better all around," she said.

There's even incentive for those who don't have children or have no interest in walking or biking themselves. Bennett said neighborhoods with walkability and bikeability experience increased property values and draw young people who are potential customers and employees for local businesses.

But there's an even more basic benefit for car owners.

"Every person you see on a bike is potentially one more parking space for you," Bennett said.

A more walkable, bikeable community can also reduce traffic jams, increase tourism and cut down on harmful emissions that damage the environment.

"There are very few problems we face as a community that we can't help solve by making people more active, by giving them more opportunities for recreation and transportation," Bennett said.

Overcoming obstacles

Healthy Savannah is confident in its ability to make real changes in the community, even in the face of opposition. Previously, the organization was an instrumental player in the passing of the smoke-free air ordinance 2010, the establishment of the weekly farmer's market in Forsyth Park and the LEAN Challenge, a community-wide 10-week program that provided free activities for Savannahians to help them lose weight.

Kreissler said the network of the Healthy Savannah coalition can often be called upon to solve a problem.

"Members of the coalition have an opportunity to say, 'Okay, here is this road bump. What do you think we can do about that?'" she said. "And somebody might say 'Oh, I know so-and-so. Let me go talk to them.' … That's the beauty of the coalition."

Bennett said that the testimonials of other citizens can often be the greatest defense against negativity.

"People who have seen the kind of wonderful changes this makes in a neighborhood become the number one evangelists," he said. "And those are the most powerful voices in the entire conversation. Each success we have is going to activate and engage other people who are able to go out and talk in a very convincing way about why you want this in your neighborhood now, too."

Above all else, the members of Healthy Savannah agreed that it was attitude and outlook that matter.

"We have a lot of like-minded people who are about being healthy," said assistant director Morphia Scarlett. "And not just our coalition and our members, but there are people in the community who would like to be healthier. … We're not pushing health care or medicines or anything like that. It's a mindset, I would say."

"It's a social movement," Kreissler added. "And we've been successful to date and there's no reason to think that we won't continue the work that we've already done."